


you should be buying this pollock, not my heart

by geniewish



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Crack, First Meetings, Fluff, I hope this is funny, M/M, hyungwon the market seller, kihyun the doofus, this is based on weekly idol skit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 15:01:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17921063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/geniewish/pseuds/geniewish
Summary: But no matter how ridiculous this entire situation is, Kihyun cannot give up. He tugs at the rolled-up sleeve of the guy’s shirt and calls his attention back to him. “Look, there’s something right here,” he sincerely says, making the seller boy look down on the poor fish again. “It’s,” he raises his hand and lightly-lightly, with the tips of his fingers, touches the seller boy’s soft jaw, “the handsomeness that fell from your face.”





	you should be buying this pollock, not my heart

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this really quickly so its really not as good as it can be 
> 
> this is based on the skit they did on the recent weekly idol episode! like, this isn't even my idea, hyungki did it themselves first,,, their Mind
> 
> hope you like it! please tell me you laugh at least once /teary eyed emoji/

Noise, noise, noise, noise, noise, is all Kihyun thinks about. 

The marketplace is nothing but a cacophony of noise, chaos composed of local folk’s rumbling and grumbling and shouting and squawking. Women bargain, sellers curse – or maybe it’s the other way round – children wail and grandpas bark, all of a sudden. 

Kihyun pushes through the crowd, exasperated. It’s a weekend, beginning of holidays, and it seems like the entirety of Gwangju population fell out of their homes onto the streets, rushing right into the covered market to buy food for their family dinner. Kihyun himself was sent here by his granny – he needs to buy, oh, he needs to buy a hell lot of stuff. Newly harvested fruits, red beans for rice cakes they will make at home, cabbage and radish, meat, soy beans, maybe a package of glass noodles too. 

He loves his granny, loves her little countryside house and her warm wrinkled hands that once taught him how to mix and spread the paste for kimchi correctly. It’s just that sometimes he has those days when he wants to lie down and be his own person, strum his guitar, ride his bike, work in the garden with his grandfather – he’d rather plow the earth and pluck scallions and then inconspicuously eat the cleanest-looking leaves while the old man isn’t watching, than getting stomped on in the crowded market. 

And what demon told Kihyun’s granny to send him grocery shopping a day before the holiday? The world may never know. 

Barely trudging along the packed displays with food, Kihyun mentally goes through the list of ingredients. Bulgogi will be on the table just fine, dough for the rice cakes has never been more ready, all the vegetables in his bag are pushing him down to the ground – he bought a whole lot of those. Suddenly, a smell of something fishy hits his nostrils, so pungent and insistent that Kihyun wants to pinch his nose and run away. And then it hits him – he didn’t buy fish for the stew.

Sighing with resignation, he pushes to the stand with dead fish, some fresh, some dry, some… just fish. He can get a few pieces of pollock; that will not only be enough for the stew, but they’ll have some left for the pancakes. Kihyun doesn’t like seafood, but his granny makes the best dongtae jeon, and he cannot refuse her the pleasure of cooking a dish from his childhood. 

When the space in front of the display finally becomes available, Kihyun spreads his shoulders and stands right where all the dry fish is stacked in a sad stinky pile. Humming under his nose, he concludes that all of the pollock is the same and he can just ask the seller to grab a few and pay however much he needs. 

Kihyun looks up, searching for the owner of the stand. He ducks his head backwards and drags the corners of his lips down in surprise as he doesn’t see a single fisherman-looking man, and he’s seen a lot of fishermen to recognise what they look like. Strangely, there are only customers judging the pollock and a young boy behind the display talking to a woman through the buzzing noise of the street. 

He feels a little funny. Mentally hitting his head, Kihyun stops himself from snickering at the unfortunate business the guy in front of him is doing and waits for him to stop talking and pay him attention. Maybe he likes fishing. Kihyun also wanted to be a farmer and grow strawberries when he was younger, he himself is a country boy too, everyone has their own dreams. 

Kihyun thinks all that until the fish seller guy actually turns around and looks at him. The weight in his bag suddenly disappears, his irritated nerves are flattened, his sweat is dried and the fish smell is flowers. Now Kihyun has all the rights to feel funny, because this must be a joke. He blinks a few times. He draws a couple of fat red question marks over his head and has the urge to scratch his chin in deep pondering.

Here is the problem. How is it that someone with such a pretty face is haggling about the freshness of a damn pollock and not, well, coaxing some branded perfume on a big billboard somewhere in Gangnam? 

“Good day,” the guy behind the fish stand exclaims loudly so the local folk can hear him through the unending whirring. He spares Kihyun a glance, waits half a second for him to indicate that he is, in fact, buying some fish, and when Kihyun does nothing but stares, dismissively moves an eyebrow under his black ruffled bangs and turns to a women in front of him.

It’s because of people like this that Kihyun has ‘those days’, when he wants to stay at home and grill pork ribs for his family in peace, not talking to any cute strangers, not looking into any big sparkling eyes. The seller boy is tall, skinny in this light shirt with rolled-up sleeves, and his voice is loud and nasal and his dialect is too prominent even for a simple provincial boy like him. 

It’s because of people like this that Kihyun has ‘those days’, when he is bored and hasn’t met anyone knew in a long time, and an excessive spur of confidence is seeping through the rounded ends of his compact-sized body.

Which is why he bends down to the fish and gasps. “What?”

The seller boy is finally done with the previous customer and turns all his undivided attention to Kihyun, wiping his forehead and curling his eyebrows with a nod towards him.

“How much is this?” Kihyun asks, pointing at a pollock. There is a price tag right by the pile, but he decides to lawfully ignore it for the sake of his unlawful schemes. 

“Ten thousand won each.” The seller boy replies, fixing his plastic gloves as he is so sure Kihyun will leave the marketplace with his fish in the bag. 

But he isn’t easy, so he looks down and points at a dead pollock’s eye. “There’s something on here.” He raises his voice to exaggerate the surprise, and the tall boy bends down, taking a fish with his big hand and turning in on a side. 

“What’s on it?” He asks in slight annoyance. Kihyun brings his hand back a bit too quickly, unexpected movements from the seller boy surprising him. The funny things is, Kihyun knows he can be a little too cheeky in random situations for no reason whatsoever, but just something in the guy opposite really makes him want to point his finger at a damned fish again.

“Somethi–”

“Where?” The other interrupts and looks up briefly, and Kihyun maybe just slightly-slightly cowers because of the accusatory tone of the seller boy’s loud voice. 

“There’s something on it, I’m telling you.” He sounds more affirmed this time, somehow more confident in his truth now that the tall guy is the same height as him. That is, until he straightens up again and offendedly rounds his already big round eyes, leering at Kihyun. 

“D’you think I’m cheap?” He asks with even more accusation in his voice than before, expression almost contemptful if it weren’t for the cutely parted plump lips and long lashes and small shiny nose. Kihyun is both terrified for his life (because arguing with a market seller, no matter how young, is never a good idea) and also a little enamoured, because the displeased look on the pretty guy’s face in front of him is doing things to him. “What’s on here?” He asks again with more pressure this time, and Kihyun can’t give up yet. 

“There’s something right here.” He almost complains but ends up sounding less like an unsatisfied customer and more like a shy toddler that lost the line he was reading out line in class. 

The seller boy clicks his tongue and turns to the side, sighing with all the annoyance his thin body can possibly hold. “I can’t deal with folks like this anymore.” He puts his gloved hands on his hips and curves his lips, hiding the corners, so clearly exasperated with the other boy’s stupidity. 

But no matter how ridiculous this entire situation is, Kihyun cannot give up. He tugs at the rolled-up sleeve of the guy’s shirt and calls his attention back to him. “Look, there’s something right here,” he sincerely says, making the seller boy look down on the poor fish again. In this angle, Kihyun can almost count his lashes, so visible against the slightly tanned shiny cheeks. If he was any more oblivious to his own flood of thoughts, he’d say his next words were said by a demon that possessed him out of nowhere. “It’s,” he raises his hand and lightly-lightly, with the tips of his fingers, touches the seller boy’s soft jaw, “the handsomeness that fell from your face.”

Just as the words leave his mouth, Kihyun cringes with all the organs in his body, but manages to remove his hand calmly, like all of this was part of his plan, like every movement was carefully worked out from A to Z. In reality, Kihyun is silently questioning his sanity.

The seller boy parts his mouth in initial shock at first, before his tongue slides over the front row of his teeth and pokes at the inside of his cheek, at loss for words at the bold audacity from the impudent customer. For a short while, Kihyun forgets there are other people around them and that the market is still as busy as the day, buzzing and humming with noise and clamour. For this short while, everything turns into a muted hush at the back of his mind as he just stares at the pretty boy, processing how soft his cheek felt on the tip of his fingers. 

The silence dissipates when the other guy open his mouth again. “What.” His facial expression changes in a blink of an eye, going from resigned annoyance and strange acceptance of such boldness from Kihyun’s side to almost staged disgust. His top lip rises and curves, and he sways his hand over the side of his face where the shorter boy touched him.”What did you say?”

Kihyun takes the question a bit too literally. “Handsom–”

The seller boy takes one of the poor dead fish by its tail and almost slams it back into the pile. “You came here to buy some pollock.” He states, giving Kihyun a look that doesn’t leave any room for disagreement. “Are you buying my pollock or not?”

Feeling his cheeks heating up, Kihyun contains the embarrassed smile and glances down again. Another idea sparks in his head. “Would the sweet seller be kind enough to let me try it first?”

The other guy closes his eyes for a second, mentally collecting his shits and wits, then loudly inhales and exhales, walking to the cutting board by his display. He almost rips the plastic gloves off his hands, but Kihyun has sharp eyes, he sees the tiny sprout of a knowing smile growing on the pretty features. Maybe he is a little too bold, but at least the seller buy understands he is coming from genuine urges. He knows he is too damn cute to be true.

“Can’t deal with customers like this today.” He mumbles under his breath as he takes a big cutting knife and skillfully slams it down the fish already lying on the board. He takes out a small piece of jerky, holding it with his gloved hand, while the other calls Kihyun over and reaches forward, as if to cup the boy’s chin so the food doesn’t fall out of his mouth the next time he stares at the seller boy for more than appropriate. 

The piece of fish doesn’t reach his mouth though. Kihyun, on half conscious impulses, takes the thin bare hand in his and strokes over the bony knuckles, skin soft and paler than his face, but just as pretty, almost unbelievably so. 

“Why are your hands so delicate?” He asks with full seriousness, thumb brushing the long phalanges and carefully cut nails. He looks up. “They are very gentle.”

The seller boy breathes out again, granting Kihyun a deadpanned look and an exasperated raise of eyebrows. He turns to the side again, wiping the sweat off his forehead. “It’s the first time seeing someone like this during my twenty years on this earth.” He huffs out an incredulous laugh and gives Kihyun the same incredulous look. “You should be buying this pollock, not my heart.” He lightly slaps the table, and Kihyun can’t hold it in anymore, exploding in the biggest sheepish smile. 

He just barely stops himself from clutching his chest with how much peculiar joy he has in his body. Is it weird? How did the simple seller boy make his heartbeat go up by a mile with a loud justified nag, whereas Kihyun had to oil all the screws in his brain just to come up with a single flattering line? It’s weird. He is weird. What demons urged his granny to send him to the market on this very day?

“I’ll take three pieces, sir!” Kihyun exclaims on sudden impulse, smile stuck to his lips like a leech. 

The tall guy sighs and takes a plastic bag, putting the poor dead fish in it. The corners of his mouth are still curled up in a strange copy of a smile, softening the clear state of incredulity that’s pouring from every pore on his body.

Kihyun nearly gasps as something hits him while getting out his wallet. “Sweet fish seller mister, how can I refer to you?”

The other boy huffs out another laugh, tongue poking his cheek again, and his lips move in a suspicious repetition of ‘sweet fish seller mister, my ass’. He looks at Kihyun again. Look at him as he ties the plastic bag, looks at him as he hands it to the brazen boy, looks at him as he takes the money into his palm and claps it on the table. 

“Hyungwon.” He simply replies and finally looks away, loudly greeting another (already annoyed and dissatisfied) customer. 

Kihyun stares for a while longer, enchanted smile still gracing his lips. “I’m Kihyun.” His voice is drowned in the flood of street noise, but as he tries to push back into the market row, he still catches onto the little sigh leaving Hyungwon’s mouth and a light twitch of one corner of his mouth, immediately replaced by a ‘salmon then, sir?’ as he continues to work through the day. 

The pollock pancakes Kihyun’s granny makes are as delicious as ever. 

 

On the third day of holidays, Kihyun goes to the market again. This time, his thoughts rave in a religious mantra of ‘Hyungwon, Hyungwon, Hyungwon, Hyungwon’ as he rushes through the less busy crowd and searches for the familiar fish display. 

It’s one of those days again. One of those days when he is stuck on the same thought, with the same goal, with the same face, and he is stuck so badly, that all he can do is go to the marketplace and talk to the pretty seller boy he accidentally dedicated a song to. He knew he shouldn’t have brought his guitar to his granny’s house. 

His heartbeat picks up when he sees him – in the same thin shirt with the same rolled-up sleeves, disposable gloves on and hair ruffled in a slightly sweaty mess as he balances between talking to customers and cutting and distributing fish to their designated piles. 

Kihyun gathers all the nervousness in his clammy fist and confidently walks to the fish stand. A herd of people rushes right past him, cutting him in his tracks, and he stumbles over his feet, nearly planting his face into the stinky stack of fresh pollock. Well, at least he got here fast. 

The seller boy looks up, opening his mouth in an automatic greeting, but instead a flood of various emotions distorts his features, ranging from ‘oh, god, it’s him again’ to ‘what a doofus’ to ‘it’s coming’.

“Good day!” Kihyun exclaims and scratches the back of his head. 

Hyungwon eventually resorts to a short nod. “Day good,” before he turns around and continues gathering the fish for a woman he was serving before. 

Kihyun, the nonchalance personified, looks over the display like that’s what he came here for, humming a tune under his breath and lightly bouncing on his feet. He realises that Hyungwon is done by a loud sigh over his head. 

“Buying pollock again today, sir?” He asks loudly, and the thin notes of mockery don’t slip past Kihyun’s ears.

“How much for this?” He points at the pile of dead sea creatures that look suspiciously like something Kihyun has already bought the other day, and Hyungwon puts his hands on the table behind the display, leaning forward. 

“Ten thousand won each.” An inconspicuous smile is hiding in the corner of his lips. But even if he has no intentions of showing his amusement, it’s apparent in his big brown eyes, staring at the shorter boy like he knows him inside out. 

Kihyun, finger still pointing at the fish below him, moves his hand up in one swift (at least he hopes it looks so) motion, looking right at Hyungwon with innocent eyes. “How much for this one?”

Hyungwon straightens when a random man behind the fish stand brings a bucket of new catch, handing it to the boy. He rolls his eyes and puts the bucket on the ground, a tiny-tiny resigned smile playing on his lips. “This one,” he gets up and takes out a few fresh tails, sorting them out, “doesn’t sell.”

Kihyun expected this. Kihyun knows this. Kihyun is no ordinary provincial doofus. Which is why he takes a pollock from the display and raises it on the level of his face, committed to his next words. “What if I buy this and cook you a meal for free? Fair trade?” He wasn’t meant to question any of this, but the same incredulous (and a little bit concerned, perhaps) look is back on the seller boy’s face, and for a fleeting moment, his heart drops. 

Then Hyungwon shuts his eyes, smiles widely and freezes just like that, and the more Kihyun stares, the more he realises that the other guy is laughing, unexpectedly so. Hyungwon’s nose crinkles, his eyebrows curve, his shoulders and chest spasm, and a light chortle leaves through his exposed teeth before he brings a gloved hand to his mouth and giggles out loud.

When he stops it is to fan his face and huff out another incredulous laugh. “I can’t deal with customers like this today,” he breathes out, voice higher than usual due to the giggles stick stuck in his throat. He looks at Kihyun again, and something similar to a snort gets trapped in his airways when he meets the shorter boy’s enamoured eyes. “Buy my fish, then we’ll see if you can buy anything else.”

This time, Kihyun doesn’t resist the urge to clutch his chest. 

 

 

The seaside of Mokpo is colder than Kihyun expected. It’s a sunny, beautiful day, but the smell of seaweed and the frivolous wind just won’t leave the poor boy alone. He shivers when the salty breeze hits him again, gets under his clothes and slaps his face with its sneaky fingers, and Hyungwon just laughs, stepping over the board of his boat with rope in hands. 

It’s fascinating to see the other boy in his element, so Kihyun squares up to the cold and bounces around the pierce, curiously following everything Hyungwon does. 

“So you’re actually a fisherman?” He asks when the tall boy drags the heavy boat fenders back onto the deck, wiping his forehead as he straightens. 

“Well, yeah.” He answers like this piece of information is not new to Kihyun, which it isn’t, but the shorter boy always likes to confirm. 

When the boat is ready, Hyungwon takes Kihyun’s hands in his and helps him get on deck. He nearly slips, and the taller boy laughs with wide precious smile that gathers all the sunlight and Kihyun’s adoration. 

They sail further away from the coast, almost flying over the deep blue water. The wind ruffles Hyungwon’s hair as he stands by the steering wheel, smiling into the salty air and bright blue sky. Kihyun is sitting at the back, enjoying the ride over the bumpy waves and the stunning view on the city from the distance. When they stop, Hyungwon gets out his fishing rod and prepares the line, fixing it to his tool. 

“If I fall into the water, will you hook me like one of your sea worms and trap me in your net?” Kihyun shouts the ridiculous question as he rises on his knees and bends over the rail at the back of the boat, looking into the deep-deep water, searching for fish and maybe even sea demons, if those exist. 

Hyungwon laughs with the same incredulity he experienced the very first time they met. He never got used to the absurd nature of the other boy’s character. 

“Oh, god,” he breathes out through the wave of laughter, spinning the reel, “I should be catching fish, not this crush,” he whispers to himself. 

He ends up catching both.

**Author's Note:**

> i know pollock jerky isn't really a thing but lets pretend he was cutting some other fish jerky okay let me be
> 
> hmu on twt @chaeleggiewon !!


End file.
